Peacock mating season - the screaming!!

EmmaJayde

Hatching
Oct 23, 2017
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Hi everyone

Brand new to peacock ownership and in desperate need of advice.

I recently (nearly 3 months ago) purchased a peacock, he is about 2.5 years old. I brought him home and he settled into his large enclosure quickly. He was completely free ranging at his old home so adjusting to an enclosure and regular interaction with a human has been a slow but gradual process (he will free roam in another month). He is housed with 1 polish hen, and 4 commercial chickens are next door.

I had read ALOT about the sound peacocks make before buying him, but I definitely wasn't prepared. This last 2 weeks he has been calling more and more, probably 3-4 times an hour. Until last night this was limited to the daytime. This morning I was woken up to him calling every hour from about 2am.

Obviously I care about my neighbours and my own sleep so this can't continue.

Can you provide suggestions to minimise his need to call? I have been offered a peahen from a friend, but is this likely to resolve the calling? I don't want to end up with two peafowl if the calling is likely to continue at this rate.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
 

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Write from where ... because in the northern hemisphere ... peacocks are silent!
Indian Blue are like that ... noisy during the breeding season ... nothing can change them!
The spalding peacocks are less noisy ... the sound is more grave so more acceptable to the neighbors!
http://www.xeno-canto.org/100440
 
I'm in Queensland, Australia so we've just entered mating season (September/October - December), but if you say there's nothing that you can do I guess that answers my question.

Write from where ... because in the northern hemisphere ... peacocks are silent!
Indian Blue are like that ... noisy during the breeding season ... nothing can change them!
The spalding peacocks are less noisy ... the sound is more grave so more acceptable to the neighbors!
http://www.xeno-canto.org/100440
I
 
Breeding season may be part of the problem but I think he is lonesome and calling for mate. Perhaps he had a mate at his old home or another peafowl he had bonded to. If you are able to get a female for him I don't think he will be calling as much. My pair of peafowl haven't gone thru a breeding season yet, but I rarely hear either one of them.

By the way :welcome
 
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Four months ago a peacock just showed up on our property. He free roams during the day but sleeps on top of our breezeway roof at night or out in some of our tall evergreen trees (we live in Washington State). Since his arrival he has only screamed three times and each was when he was trying to warn us of danger on our property. First was when I surprised him as he was coming in for a landing and didn't initially see me, the second was when a cat was eating out of the bird's food bowl, and the last was when a bouncy Irish setter puppy was just curious and started following the bird downhill.

He doesn't seem to have a harem elsewhere or even a girlfriend but I am dreading mating time as he is a blue Indian and they are described here as loud. Being new to birds all the way around, we'll have to see how this goes since like you, I don't want to offend our neighbors. Let's hope he stays as sweet and quiet as he has been so far.
 
Update:



On 24 October I got my boy a peahen. He absolutely hated her initially and they had to be separated for a few days. Fast forward 7 weeks and the calling has definitely improved from what it was when he was alone, but he still likes to let me know that he’s there in the mornings.



I’ve started trying to free range him. Unfortunately he keeps wanting to visit my neighbours property who happen to have two big dogs. I feel terrible that my neighbours have to lock their dogs inside and I have to run over to their place to chase him home. I leave the peahen in a separate enclosure when he’s out free ranging so that the door to his enclosure stays open.



I’ve taken to standing at the fence which divides my neighbour and I and shooing him away when he approaches that boundary, but I think my efforts are in vain, he’s probably always going to have a fascination with going over there. Although my neighbours aren’t annoyed by his visits, it’s not fair on them to have to secure their dogs inside on their own property.
 
We had peafowl on the farm I grew up on many years ago in Indiana. We just recently got a male and a female and we ended up putting them in a aviary built on our property. I had forgotten how loud they are. They call when they want to, with a mate or without a mate. With the blue peafowl that we have it gets really bad in March-August. They are beautiful birds and they are extremely loud. We are zoned to have livestock, so it's really not a problem and our neighbors think they are exotic. I have read in old books on peafowl that years ago some people would remove the birds vocal cords. But to me this seems extremely cruel and I would never have anything like that done. Be sure to do your research before getting any kind of critter. But, I had peafowl 35 years ago and I didn't remember how loud they were. Go figure.
 

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